He's delightful @AnniD I don't mind the starlings, but they are hideously messy, and a nuisance when they start nesting in roofs. I like Mr thicky wood pigeon too. I also don't mind the rooks and their pals, although they don't visit very often. All welcome here - except for the skanky street pigeons and seagulls. There's a little colony of streeties in an abandoned farmhouse not far away, and seagulls have also infiltrated, although not in my garden. I presume because there's fewer folk in town feeding them, and less food outlets open for easy pickings. I'm a good half hour away from coast and city.
'My toe bleeds, Betty' is always the woodies's call for me
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I love starlings, but then I like magpies and crows too. The only birds I really dislike are parakeets and I'm not too keen on pigeons either. Used to see bits of them littered about the garden, but no cats around at the moment so they're increasing in numbers now.
Spot the pigeon! @pansyface Took me a while to find him he blends in so well.
I dislike Magpies! I have a pair that visit occasionally but are not welcome. Wood pigeons are welcome though as they pick up the sunflower hearts that the Goldfinches drop.
I don't mind starlings at all, I only see them when the mealworms go out on a tray and then they descend en masse and the mealworms are gone in about 5 minutes.
There's a magpie who's a regular visitor at the moment with a bad leg, it hops about on one but I have a soft spot for it because its coping admirably and its very clever at divebombing the feeders and then sweeping up what falls out. The dopey wood pigeons would never figure that out!
Not a fan of starlings. We're invaded by them in winter when they hang around the local dairy farm's cow sheds. They bully the little birds off the feeders. I have a particular loathing of magpies
So how many versions of a woodpigeon's call can we collect? I've never heard the two above. I always thought it was "Take two cows, Taffy."
I don't think gulls are popular anywhere: noise, mess, ripping open bin bags, stealing chips, eating food put out for more engaging wildlife. Here in Llandudno we have a large population of herring gulls, which nationally are in decline. Every now and then someone writes to the paper complaining about them and wanting them culled. This letter always evokes the same two replies: 1. They can't be culled, they're a protected species; 2. If you don't like gulls, don't live at the seaside.
We also have more jackdaws than I've seen anywhere else. I had to take down the hanging suet block feeder because the neighbours complained (nicely) about jackdaw poop on their clean washing. The jackdaws loved the suet block, but used next door's washing line as a queuing space while waiting their turn.
Nope, I’m afraid I don’t like magpies either We had a baby blackbird a couple of weeks ago that took up residence in the cotoneaster bush by the gate, two feet off the ground. For all cat haters here, I would just like to say that our two cats ignored it. They knew it was there and they left it be.
We found its feathers at six the next morning. CCTV replay showed a magpie come at four a.m., drag it out of the bush, hammer it to death on the ground, and fly off with its corpse. I know that magpies are nature’s dustbins, but it’s not as if they don’t get plenty food, such as leftover cat food, elsewhere.
AnniD, Scruffy looks like he’s been in lockdown too long. He needs a trip to the hairdresser. 😁
I love all the birdy visitors although I have a few different favourites. Starlings are one of my faves, they are little characters. This year they have been nesting in next door but one's (new) roof. One of the adults who we have named Steve sits outside our kitchen window most mornings and as soon as he spots me starts his starling swark. He knows I will be out with meals worms and suet pellets.
We were laughing at him one morning as I filled the bird table and went in, he wont feed until I go inside but in the meantime half a dozen jackdows swooped down and started eating. He flew over, tried to find a way in, he got amongst them and flapped his wings. The Jackdows flew off. All the other starlings came down and had their breakfast. I would love for it to happen again so I could film it but alas it has not happened since
We have starlings here but sporadically. Just a week or so ago I inadvertently frightened off a flock of 30 or so helping themselves to the yellow cherries in a tree behind a barn. Insipid fruit so the birds are welcome. They tend to flock and perch along the leccy wires that run across our paddock to the farm behind and in the trees along the boundary. Occasionally small groups land and inspect the dry, gravelled patch behind us presumably looking for seeds or insects. Entertaining.
Magpies are no worse than other corvids at predating songbird nests and rather more handsome than crows. Less noisy too.
Our plot is surrounded by mixed hedges and trees, has lots of wild areas and grass left uncut to allow wildflowers to grow and we keep the feeders stocked up all year yet not a huge variety of birds, tho growing numbers of the ones we do have. No blackbirds or thrushes, no flycatchers or tree creepers, no spotted woodpeckers.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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I don't mind the starlings, but they are hideously messy, and a nuisance when they start nesting in roofs.
I like Mr thicky wood pigeon too. I also don't mind the rooks and their pals, although they don't visit very often.
All welcome here - except for the skanky street pigeons and seagulls. There's a little colony of streeties in an abandoned farmhouse not far away, and seagulls have also infiltrated, although not in my garden. I presume because there's fewer folk in town feeding them, and less food outlets open for easy pickings. I'm a good half hour away from coast and city.
'My toe bleeds, Betty' is always the woodies's call for me
The only birds I really dislike are parakeets and I'm not too keen on pigeons either. Used to see bits of them littered about the garden, but no cats around at the moment so they're increasing in numbers now.
I dislike Magpies! I have a pair that visit occasionally but are not welcome. Wood pigeons are welcome though as they pick up the sunflower hearts that the Goldfinches drop.
I like the cheeping of the house sparrows, they're always busy chattering or taking dust baths.
There's a magpie who's a regular visitor at the moment with a bad leg, it hops about on one but I have a soft spot for it because its coping admirably and its very clever at divebombing the feeders and then sweeping up what falls out. The dopey wood pigeons would never figure that out!
They bully the little birds off the feeders.
I have a particular loathing of magpies
I don't think gulls are popular anywhere: noise, mess, ripping open bin bags, stealing chips, eating food put out for more engaging wildlife. Here in Llandudno we have a large population of herring gulls, which nationally are in decline. Every now and then someone writes to the paper complaining about them and wanting them culled. This letter always evokes the same two replies: 1. They can't be culled, they're a protected species; 2. If you don't like gulls, don't live at the seaside.
We also have more jackdaws than I've seen anywhere else. I had to take down the hanging suet block feeder because the neighbours complained (nicely) about jackdaw poop on their clean washing. The jackdaws loved the suet block, but used next door's washing line as a queuing space while waiting their turn.
We found its feathers at six the next morning. CCTV replay showed a magpie come at four a.m., drag it out of the bush, hammer it to death on the ground, and fly off with its corpse. I know that magpies are nature’s dustbins, but it’s not as if they don’t get plenty food, such as leftover cat food, elsewhere.
AnniD, Scruffy looks like he’s been in lockdown too long. He needs a trip to the hairdresser. 😁
We were laughing at him one morning as I filled the bird table and went in, he wont feed until I go inside but in the meantime half a dozen jackdows swooped down and started eating. He flew over, tried to find a way in, he got amongst them and flapped his wings. The Jackdows flew off. All the other starlings came down and had their breakfast. I would love for it to happen again so I could film it but alas it has not happened since
Magpies are no worse than other corvids at predating songbird nests and rather more handsome than crows. Less noisy too.
Our plot is surrounded by mixed hedges and trees, has lots of wild areas and grass left uncut to allow wildflowers to grow and we keep the feeders stocked up all year yet not a huge variety of birds, tho growing numbers of the ones we do have. No blackbirds or thrushes, no flycatchers or tree creepers, no spotted woodpeckers.